Yuma County flu cases increase by 1,400%

It’s been a busy year for hospitals across the country, including Yuma Regional Medical Center, as flu cases have surged this year. The Arizona Department of Economic Security says to date, there have been 523 pneumonia and influenza deaths this season. That is over 200 more than last season, about a 62% increase. Some people that died were described to be healthy and active. As for pediatric deaths, there have been 97 recorded so far. The flu increase is not the only problem hospital staff are dealing with. This year there’s been shortages with many supplies and medications. Across the country, shortages with staff may also get worse within the next decade.

“The flu season is always unpredictable.It’s really hard to know how the season will be every year,” said Yuma County Epidemiologist Benito Lopez.

Around this time last season there were only 47 lab confirmed flu cases ion Yuma County. However this year that number jumped to 676. That’s more than a 1,400% increase.

“It is the H3N3 strain, is what they are saying. The strain of the flu and I think the flu shot only covers about 30 percent,” said Deb Aders, Chief Nursing Officer for Yuma Regional Medical Center.

Lopez also said that the vaccine will not prevent the flu 100%, but it will give you protection in some percentage. They say it’s better to have some protection than none.

“So if you are exhibiting signs of the flu, you’ll usually have respiratory cough and cold…low grade fever… Your primary care physician is usually the first person to go to,” Aders said.

Lopez says not to go to the ER first. “There’s a good number of people with similar symptoms. If you don’t have the flu you might get exposed to it,” he said.

The CDC says you should only go to the ER if you have emergency warning signs. That includes difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, dizziness, or vomiting.

“Anytime there’s increased patient needs and when you see you see flu patients very frequently there’s dehydration and what not…Fluids are needed or antibiotics for secondary bacterial infections related to respiratory conditions. IV solutions are important, it’s the primary way that we mix medications to help us administer it to patients,” said Mark Jorder, Director of Pharmacy

However there was a shortage with IV solutions that grew worse this year because of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico. Some of the top manufacturers are there.

“It’s not been this bad that I’ve seen in a long time. The issue with it is that it comes at exactly the wrong time, winter time here in Yuma..and when our services demand goes up, supply shortages like this really impact our operation here at Yuma Regional Medical Center,” said Jordan.

Since the hurricane, he says the companies have re-purposed other locations to get their operation back up and running. However, it’s still not risen to pre-hurricane levels.

“As far as the duration of the overall shortages and when we get back to normal IV fluids, its hard to say. The manufacturers are hopeful that’s in the months to come. Until then though, there’s a lot of disruption that comes with it,” Jordan said.

In the meantime, it’s forced them to come up with alternative methods to IV solution bags.

“For instance, instead of mixing these antibiotics into a small bag that a nurse would hang…and use in an IV pump, we are doing them whats called IV push,” said Jordan. He said it’s administered directly with the syringe. “It’s safe and effective. It doesn’t change the effect to the patient,” said Jordan.

It’s not a new method, but it’s one they’ll be doing more. and it comes with concern.

“It’s not an easy thing to switch from one product to another,” said Jordan. It causes a lot of folks in different departments disruption; That includes the business officer and information technology analysts that build the databases. “Everyone has to jump in to action to accommodate changes, so shortages like this are impactful not just to the clinical staff but the whole system that supports the record keeping part.”

As for other hospitals across the country, some have chosen to give out Gatorade because of the electrolytes to keep patients hydrated. IV solutions and bags aren’t the only thing running low.

“There’s national shortages of many injectable generic drugs, that would include things like valuable pain medication like morphine… and fentanyl,” Jordan said. He says they don’t expect production for that to be back to normal until 2019.

“Shortages happen for number of reasons…the hurricane…snow storms…That’s interrupted shipments from the east coast to the west coast…and not being able to get a truck on the road to deliver the stuff,” said Jordan. Patients are taken care of despite the shortages.

According to United Blood Services,this flu season has also drastically reduced the number of donors eligible to give blood. This has impacted supplies across the country.

As for those who take care of people when they’re sick-over the next decade we may possibly see nursing shortages get worse. According to the bureau of labor statistics, the number of nurse job openings will reach over one-million by the year 2024.

“So I think the biggest thing we’re seeing right now is the schools are not being able to keep up with the demand.The volume of the baby boomers are all coming into retirement, and so that increases services of organizations…And I think the other one is the age of the nurses. The nurses are averaging the age of 50,” said Aders.

Many nursing schools across the country have waiting lists. The reason? There aren’t enough educators and nurses to run the programs. Arizona has also added another step before getting into a nursing program.

“This was a statewide change recently that made entry into the nursing program more complicated…Now to qualify for the nursing college program, those applicants have to be…licensed nursing assistants first. So the state in a way has made it a little more complicated for us,” said Randy Etzler, the Administrative Director of Human Resources at YRMC.

Here is the link to the nursing shortage fact sheet from the AACN: http://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Shortage

Here is the link from the CDC regarding flu emergency symptoms: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/takingcare.htm